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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0747.PDF
ittA NOVEMBER 12, 1925 THE 1925 SCHNEIDER TROPHY RACE "Flight" Correspondent's Special Account So genuine and general has been the interest in this year'srace for the Jacques Schneider Maritime Trophy that we make no apology for referring to the subject again this week,the more so as a special account of the race and the happenings of the days preceding it, as well as photographs of machines,incidents and personalities, reached us too late to be included m the special coloured supplement dealing with the SchneiderTrophy Race which we published last week. The detailed " story " by an eye-witness who had quite exceptionalfacilities for obtaining first-hand information adds a good deal of useful knowledge to what has already been published,and will on this score doubtless be read with considerable interest. Concerning the happenings on the day of the navigability trials our special correspondent writes as follows : Baltimore, October 24, 1925.—On Friday everyone was astir early, In the meantime De Briganti, one of the Italian competitors,was on the slipway preparatory to his engine being run up- Owing to over-doping this took rather a long time, buteventually he was away. After making a few circuits to test out the machine he landed, presumably to start histaxying tests. Unfortunately his engine stopped, and he had to be towed back to the slipway. By this time Broad was ready on the slipway. Soon hisgiant Napier was roaring,and after a few minutes' warming he was cast off and taxied slowly to the starting line. Hecame through his trials successfully, making beautiful get-aways and landings. On his tours of the course hemade some wide sweeps over the hangars, presumably because he wanted to get in as much flying practice aspossible. He had his engine full out, and it was giving a beautiful note. THE SCHNEIDER CUP RACE : The three Curtiss Racers on the beach at Bay Shore Park. Lieut. Doolittle'sfamous winning machine is the one in the background. Inset shows Doolittle taking off at the start of the race which he won in such splendid fashion. and Mr. Vane left the hotel at 7 a.m. with Biard, Broad, Mitchell, Jones and Jackson, ready for the start of the navigability trials. The draw for these trials had taken place, and the order was Ofstie, Cuddihy, De Briganti, Broad, Biard and Morselli. All the British visitors had gathered at Bay Shore Park for the event. Present were Messrs. Vane and Fairey, Major Buchanan, Mr. Longden, Col. Darby, Capt. Wilson, Wing-Commander Stedman, Mr. Dawson, and Wing-Com- mander Scott. When the British contingent arrived, Cuddihy had his machine out, and was doing some practice flights, and shortly returned as a laniing wire had broken. This was the first time the machine had been flown at Bay Shore Park. Shortly afterwards Ofstie took the slipway, his engine was run up, and he took off. After taxying out some distance he rose after rather a long run, and made one or two circuits and then landed to go through his navigability tests. He accomplished these successfully, the machine performing well and looking beautiful with the sun glinting on the golden wings. On landing his machine was moored to the buoy allotted for it. When Broad had left the slipway the Supermarine-NapierS.4 was brought out. Biard soon had his Napier roaring away, and without any waste of time cast off and taxiedout towards the starting line, with Mitchell in attendance in a motor-boat. Biard made a beautiful take-off and was soon flying roundover the hangars, where he made rather a steep bank. His height was about 200 ft., when, to the dismay of the watchingcrowd, he appeared to be in difficulties. He seemed to have lost control. He endeavoured to right the machine, but itfluttered down, giving one the impression Biard was side- slipping it. It was of no avail, however, and the port floatand wing hit the water first, the whole machine settling down right way up. Biard was not thrown from the cockpit,but the floats and undercarriage were completely smashed, although little damage was done to the fuselage. Biardclimbed out and clung to the tail. We heard this afterwards—we were too far away to be ofassistance to him and the anxious onlookers had to wait helplessly whilst those on the water went to his assistance.From the shore it looked impossible that he could have escaped. Broad, who was just finishing his tests, imme-diately taxied out on the Gloster-Napier, and a Voight 747
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